Category: Priorities

  • Raise the Flag

    I got a letter from a friend today. It was a real letter on real stationery. Written in cursive on both sides of the paper. Written by her own hand, from her own heart. Sent through the mail. She’s a busy woman. Single mom with two kids. A stressful, full-time job. An aging parent that…

  • Quarantine Quandaries: The Sabbath

    When I try to wrap my mind about this thing that we are all living through, I have to admit, it makes me tired. I don’t know what to say. When words don’t come, I find it best to be silent. And that’s what I’ve been learning to do for the past 56 days. The…

  • Home Building

    First, this entry is not about building a house. Not even on my bravest of days am I willing to tackle that topic!  No, the thoughts I’m having today are on a much broader plane than construction. The thing is, I’m really tired. Physically tired, and tired in other ways, too. But this tired is…

  • Got A Minute?

    I am a pretty avid procrastinator. It’s an issue. There are goals I keep failing to reach, projects I keep failing to complete. On the other hand, I am on my second binging of all nine seasons of The Office for 2018. So yeah, I do have it in me to finish something. Anyway, I…

  • A Life Well-Lived

    In the months approaching this half-century mark of my life, it has come to my attention with increasing frequency that we do not get any do-overs when it comes to the time that we are given to spend this side of eternity.  And, I will admit, I waste a lot of it.  I don’t like…

  • Redefining “Re-Gifting”

    Every year that I taught a Phillips child at CBA in Shreveport, I got a wonderful jar of homemade mayhaw jelly! Oh, man, that was good stuff. I have never had a better tasting jelly. In Alabama, the Viravongs gave me crabmeat every year for my Christmas gumbo. What a lavish gift that was! Throughout…

  • It’s Time to Toss Those Big Girl Panties

    I’ve said it, and had it said to me. I’ve seen it embroidered on pillows, screen-printed on t-shirts, and painted on wine glasses: ”Just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.” And we know exactly what those “big girl panties” (BGP’s) are all about, don’t we. It’s about dealing with the issues…

  • Crumbs

    Don’t expect to nurture the people and relationships in your life by merely offering them the crumbs of your time- what’s left of you and your days when the things that are most pressing are done. Make the people who love you and care about you a priority, not an option.

  • What’s Your Expiration Date?

    “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we                       do not lose heart.”  Galatians 6:9 I am a stickler for expiration dates.  Obsessively so.  If a product has a date on it, I don’t try…

  • What I Can Live Without

    Every now and then I take an inventory of the things that pile up in my apartment. My suite of rooms is pretty tiny, so there isn’t a lot of space for much. Living out here on the back of the “Big House” has been an exercise in letting go. It’s amazing the stuff that…